In many applications it is desirable to track the movement of an object such as a person's eyes to determine where the person is looking. For example, it may be desirable to track eye movement of a computer user to determine where on the computer screen the user is looking. Eye tracking can be used to provide information to a computer or other device about an area of a display the person is viewing, potentially replacing other user interface devices such as mice or trackballs, and can also be used for a wide range of other applications.
Systems for tracking eye movement, also known as eye-gazing trackers, are known in art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,102, incorporated by reference herein, describes a single video camera based system for eye gaze tracking in the presence of ambient light, such as sunlight.
There are, however, a number of problems with current gaze tracking systems. These include compensating for variations in ambient light, variations in user aspect presented to the system, target distance from the system, system cost, as well as other problems.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved gaze tracking systems and methods to address the above and other problems.